The shape of the surfaces of ex-vivo human crystalline lenses was measured using a shadow photography technique.
From these data, the back-focal distance and the contribution of each surface to the main optical aberrations of the lenses
were estimated. The aberrations of the lenses were measured separately with two complementary techniques: a
Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor and a point-diffraction interferometer. A laser scanning set-up was also used to
measure the actual back-focal length as well as the phase aberration in one meridian section of the lenses. Measured and
predicted back-focal length agreed well within the experimental errors. The lens aberrations computed with a ray-tracing
approach from the measured surfaces and geometrical data only reproduce quantitatively the measured aberrations.